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I just started out on book 1 about 1 month ago and I''m only at page 65 of the book. Is this considered as very slow progress or ok progress? I'm kinda stuck at Beautiful Brown Eyes's 3rd bar and my hands just refuse to coordinate well.

Does anyone know after if you completed book 1 and 2, is there an estimate of which grade you will be at? Or only after book 1, 2 and 3 can we progress to grade 1 exam?

Were you a complete beginner or do you have previous musical experience? It would make a difference as to how fast you would progress through the first part of the book.

If you are a complete beginner I would say that your progress is a little faster than normal. If you are on page 65 you are almost half way through and although it gets more challenging and slower the further you get, one month to half way is faster than most of us have been progressing unless you have some previous experience. I started the book at the end of December of last year and am just getting to the last piece. That is about the pace of several of us who have reached the end of the book.

Perhaps the problem you are having with Beautiful Brown Eyes is that you have gone a little too fast and have not quite developed the skills fully to play the parts you are struggling with?

Do you have a teacher or are you planning on getting one? I have a teacher and he helps me by not letting me move on to the new stuff until I have a good grasp on what is being taught in the pieces we are working on.

As far as what grade the books relate to, I can't help you but the question has been asked many times before so a little searching might find you an answer.

Thanks for your advice:) I did have some music experience in my school band previously so that probably explains why I could be slightly faster especially on the theory side.

Oh I do have a teacher and I think I'm supposed to finish the book 1 in 3 months but you're right, I should double check with him on my progress. He usually wants me to go ahead in the book as far as I can on my own practice while he works on correcting my techniques when i play during lessons. He doesn't need me to play smoothly before moving on though. So perhaps you're right and I should slow down to spend more time on the pieces.

I think part of my own problem also stems from the fact I can't wait to start playing longer pieces:P

My teacher doesn't get too particular about occasional missed notes or stops and starts but he insists I get the rhythm correct. He also wants to see that I understand the dynamics as they are indicated and am at least trying to do them correctly. Once he is comfortable that I know what I should from the piece we move on. He also wants me to go as far ahead as I feel comfortable doing.

I should be done with book 1 by the end of August and that will have been 8 months for me. I started out moving fairly quickly through it as I had tried different methods before starting Alfred's but when I hit around page 100 things slowed way down. He is also introducing me to variations on ways to play the left hand chords so that has slowed me down a bit lately.

It also took me 8 months to do the first book. I went really fast until about page 89, then it slowed down. Even though I've never played the piano before, I do have previous musical experience and the basic theory is already ingrained in my head.

fairylander, I don't want you to get frustrated, but honestly I can't imagine finishing the first book in 3 months if you haven't played the piano before. Take your time to get the basics under you before you move on. The music only gets harder. As for BB Eyes just go slow and do hands separate at first. Sounds like you're progressing well. What supplemental music are you playing?

Thanks - I think I need to slow down though. I'm a lefty, so chords with the left hand are going well, but getting my right hand to work with F Maj isn't going very well lol! I figure when I meet with my prospective teacher tomorrow night I'll see what she says. It could just be a matter of repetition during practical playing to get the feel of the chord down right.

I also sometimes can't read the note on the staff - that's just time too, but I'm hesitant to move on until I can look at the staff and say "that's a G" and know right where it is no matter the clef.

Still fun - but I really want do proceed the right way rather than the fast way.

progrmr - You're in good company with all of the lefties in this thread! You may be at an advantage in that your "smart hand" is dealing with the bass clef where your note-reading skills are not as strong as they are for the treble clef. Your bass clef note recognition skills will be much,much better by the time you're done with book 1. You'll go from uhhhhh...uhhhh...that's a Bb to uhhhh....that's a D, to finally..."F" sooner than you think! In time, you'll start to think that your left hand got smarter, while your right hand didn't "progress", nearly as fast. Strange, but true! Oh, and congrats on that fine-looking piano that you've acquired! I think you have gotten the best deal on a piano of anyone on the forum (excepting nancymae!). I'm so "J"!

Welcome again, to all the new people who've joined us since my last post. I've decided against moving to Book 2 for a few more days. I just ordered books 2 & 3 of the All-In-One series, since it seems the majority of folks here have that version. Since the "regular" Adult Books 2 & 3 were so cheap, it's not much of a loss and I'll use the songs and pieces that differ between the two series as additional material. Anything to have a flat-opening book!

I'm still perfecting "The Entertainer" and learning more Christmas music in the interim. I've always tried to never look at the keyboard while playing, but I've noticed that many who play the "full version" on Youtube are looking at their hands. I guess that those big octave jumps in the full version make looking at the keyboard a neccessity! I wonder if Ray Charles ever played that piece, or any Scott Joplin, for that matter!

Gracie--I missed your beautiful recording of Amazing Grace...found it today--It is AWESOME!! I agree with the others--you sound as if you are a professional!! Question for you--I am going to study your playing more--what do you mean by "broken chords" and how are you translating that to your runs? Sure is a beautiful song! I'm still at snail's pace with mine. My teacher told me to slow down and anticipate each of the chords.

Progrmr- I congratulate you on recording yourself!! Whenever I turn on the recorder, my fingers turn into putty!! You did wonderfully on the piece! Thank you and post often! I bought myself one of those fancy portable recorders--and haven't really used it, except to turn it on and off. I have to get busy with it. Also, I think we have all had a hard time with sight reading. My teacher told me to get some manuscript paper and just put down random notes (especially the ones I have problems with) and then go back and write down the notes. Or do flash cards. I agree with Emissary--the more you do practice the easier it gets. I have my e/c/g down pat on the C clef, but those pesky d/b/f seems to give me trouble. Isn't that weird???????

Emissary--I have my Xmas book coming from Amazon as I write this!! We are going at the same speed. I picked the Xmas book greatly because it had a spiral binding. I would pay more for a book like that...why don't they make them all like that is beyond me!!

Doug--my teacher also does not have me play a piece to perfection. She said that the fingering or wrong notes will go away in time, but the rhythm and timing are more important.

fairylander, I don't want you to get frustrated, but honestly I can't imagine finishing the first book in 3 months if you haven't played the piano before. Take your time to get the basics under you before you move on. The music only gets harder. As for BB Eyes just go slow and do hands separate at first. Sounds like you're progressing well. What supplemental music are you playing?

Hi GracieCat, I'm not using any supplemental music at the moment although my teacher recommended me to start with the Hanon Book for fingering practices. I'm going to get the Level 1 Greatest Hits soon:) I finally got through to BB Eyes. I realised once I could imagine how the melody is like, it comes quite easily but the hands are still not quite coordinated:P

But I'm not sure if the latter two have been simplified. I'd prefer not to play those.

I haven't been able to practice much. If only my toddlers could sleep through the piano or I had a digital. But I guess I'll just do what I can and go slow. I did order a book or nursery rhymes so I can have sing-alongs with my girls. Don't think it will improve my playing but it should be fun!

Thanks NancyMae. When I do the broken chords that end up sounding like runs.

I just had my son record a 30 second video of me doing the runs (or whatever you call them). There's a mistake or two, but I don't have time to re-record it. It is what it is. I have to watch my hands do the runs and I lose my place in the music when I look back up. LOL

I'll start and just do a C chord, hopefully it's slow enough for you to see. Then I'll start the song. At times I'll point to a left hand finger(s) so you can see how I repeat those particular notes in succession.

Doing the runs actually adds in a measure every time. Since the time signature is in 3/4 time, you have 3 beats to fill with the runs.

I'll update this post in a little bit when the clip is finished uploading. It says 23 minutes left! Maybe I'll go do a better recording in the meantime.

It's an "easy" piano book by Alfred. There are a few really simple songs in there and some that would be almost at Book 2 level. As you proceed through Book 1, more songs will be attainable for you! Dan Coates, the author, is a pretty well-known arranger and has provided a good playing range of material that will have me using this book for several years!

I also along with the AIO Book 2 and 3, ordered the Alfred's AIO Christmas Book, but I haven't received them yet. I'll review it when it comes in, although anyone out there that has it - feel free to comment!

I have been doing well, but am struggling to separate the activity of my hands. It seems my hands are hard-wired somewhere else in my body, I have a difficult time trying to play the second bar with both hands.

Howser - All of us on this thread understand completely, your frustration with Blow The Man Down. In my case, it drove me to stop playing for a month, because I started to believe I was too stupid or uncoordinated to master this piece! I think I even had dreams and nightmares about it during that time. How could something so simple, be so hard? But I wasn't going to let BTMD defeat me, and a few days later, after starting to play again, it just kind of came together. The first time you play it correctly, you're going to feel like Sir Edmund Hillary at the top of Everest! Keep at it, in whatever way works for you and you'll get it! Perseverance pays off big with this one!!!

Howser - What worked for me on Blow The Man Down was a technique suggested by mom3gram, who has since moved on to book 2.

First make sure you can play it hands separate.

Then...

Her idea was to mark up the piece by drawing a vertical line between the left hand notes and the right hand notes where they are played simultaneously. The ones played together would have a line and the ones played alone would not. Then play it VERY slowly at first so your hands get used to which notes get played together and which ones get played separately. Then gradually start picking up speed. This worked very nicely for me and in no time I had "mastered" the seemingly impossible.

I actually used this technique again for He's Got The Whole World because I was having trouble with the syncopated notes.

I had the lines drawn vertically, but I could not get it right. After reading both responses, I went back and slowed down as Doug suggested. Wow, it is amazing what a difference slowing down made for me.

I just finished practicing and have The Entertainer in fairly good shape. I hesitate a bit in one spot and need to polish it up a little but it's basically in pretty good shape. Amazing Grace is not too far behind. I am still a little slow with it because I have to keep looking back and forth between my hands and the book. It doesn't sound too bad though since it's a piece that can be played fairly slowly and with emotion. I am really surprised by how quickly both of these pieces came together. They seemed so unreachable when I started the book in December.

My problem is that I haven't had a lesson in almost 4 weeks. I do have one this coming Wednesday but I have a big backlog of pieces that need to get passed by my teacher and there probably isn't enough time to get through them all. He likes to take the time to give me feedback and go over certain things on each piece. I need to get passed on Scarborough Fair, Raisins & Almonds, He's Got the Whole World, and now possibly The Entertainer and Amazing Grace. Add to that the version of Greensleeves he has me working on, my supplemental piece (Memory) and the scales he wants to check and I will need a 2 hour lesson to get through them all!

If I was self-teaching I would have passed myself on SF, R&A, & HGTWW 2 weeks ago but I have to keep playing them to keep them fresh. I would have also started tinkering around in book 2.

Yes, we talked about it a few weeks ago and he said it is a good method so that's the plan. I have started reading the book 2 thread from the beginning and am listening to some of the early pieces to get a feel for them. I'm tempted to start the first piece but I'll wait. I don't want to jinx myself on the remaining book 1 pieces. I don't expect to get passed on The Entertainer or Amazing Grace yet, they still need some work. They're close but need some fine tuning and I am sure he'll find something to improve on. The other pieces though should get passed, I hope.

Outstanding job on Amazing Grace, it sounds very nice.

Do you have the means to convert your WAV files into MP3s? It would make it easier to listen to your recordings. If they are in MP3 format they play directly from the Box.net page, but in WAV format they have to be downloaded first. It's not a big deal, just a little more convenient.

Actually, I was just reading on how to convert the WAV files into MP3's. Hopefully I can figure it out and convert them tonight. I want to submit a song to the Recital here this time around and they are suppose to be in MP3 format.

My recorder will record songs as MP3, but it won't allow me to divide up what I record. However, it has the ability to divide WAV files. Usually I just start a recording and play the song 2-4 times and then I cut out which version I like the best.

Truth be told, I didn't polish Entertainer. I never did smooth out that one measure on the second page. Hated the song.